SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2022 9:35 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: “The Superficial Hearer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:20-21
Message of the verses: “20 "And the
one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the
word, and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root
in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution
arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.”
We can see from this text that this second patch of
soil covers unseen rocky places, and the problem is that it has no depth. This soil represents the man who hears the
word, and immediately receives it with joy.
The difference between the first soil and this one is that it seems that
this person could hardly wait to hear the gospel message even though he
probably didn’t realize that this was what he wanted to hear, and so after
hearing it he quickly embraces it.
I
have been going to church since I was a believer for 44 years and have from
time to time seen people come to know the Lord, at least that is what they have
said, and then fade away. I have seen
people being baptized and their testimony was that they had thought they were
believers, but then realized they were not.
I mentioned that the person that gave me the gospel later on said that
he was not into that anymore, but at first it seemed to me that his faith was
genuine. I think that the rocky soil
represented this person along with his wife.
The
following quote from John MacArthur’s commentary has great meaning: “Sometimes shallow acceptance of the gospel
is encouraged by shallow evangelism that holds out the blessing of salvation
but hides the costs—such as repenting from sin, dying to self, and turning from
the old life. When people are encouraged
to walk down the aisle, raise their hand, or sign a card without coming to
grips with the full claims of Christ, they are in great danger of becoming
further from Christ than they were before they heard the message. They may become insulated from true salvation
by a false profession of faith.
“In
any case, the superficial convert accepts the message of salvation with open
arms and is overcome with joy and enthusiasm.
He cannot say enough good about the gospel, the preacher, the church,
and the Lord. He is certain he has found
the answer to his felt needs. He has
been accepted with those who believe and cannot wait to tell everyone of the
new meaning, purpose and happiness in his life.” Now I have to say that this is exactly what
happened to me right after I became a believer in 1974, but the difference in
me as opposed to those represented by the rocky soil is that I still believe
the gospel and have a great desire to tell others the truth which is that we
are all born sinners with no way of forgiveness on our own. Jesus came to earth almost 2000 years ago and
took our place on the cross in order to pay for our sins, making us right with
God. Realizing that we are sinners and
we can do nothing about it on our own, realizing that Jesus paid it all for our
sins, and then realizing that we must confess our sins and trust Christ for our
salvation is the only solution. Then we
must realize that because we are believers that life is not always going to be
rosy like some teach, for all one has to do is look at what happened to Christ’s
disciples as they were all killed for the cause of Christ with the exception of
John. The earth is not our home, heaven
is and the things that happen to us while on earth are only things that will
soon pass, they are things that are in effect tests to help us grow in our walk
with the Lord. We have to learn to
embrace them, and that is not always easy.
We have to remember that the Lord has a plan for our lives and He will
never leave us nor forsake us.
It
looks like we will have to continue to work on this section in our next SD.
3/31/2022 10:08 AM
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